UN Food & Agriculture Organisation commits to new 5-year support program

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has committed to a new five-year country support program from 2018 to 2022.

The new program framework was signed by Agriculture Minister Duminda Dissanayake on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka, and FAO Representative Nina Brandstrup.

The framework is a tool used by FAO and the Government to define the priorities of FAO’s assistance to Sri Lanka. 

FAO said the new Country Program Framework is aligned with the Government of Sri Lanka Vision 2025 document and other national priority setting documents, the UN Sustainable Development Framework for 2018-2022 as well as with the strategic objectives of FAO, and takes account of the comparative advantages and capacities of FAO in Sri Lanka.

The five-year CPF sets out three Government priority areas to guide the FAO: 1) increased contribution of food systems to food and nutrition security and income generation; 2) more sustainably managed natural resources taking account of climate change and increased resiliency of the most vulnerable to shocks, natural disasters and climate variability; 3) increased capacity of stakeholders to undertake policy formulation and to collect, analyse and utilise data and information for evidence based decision making.

Brandstrup noted that the CPF sets the path for FAO to transition towards more upstream assistance in building national capacities to make policy interventions in scaling up good practices and lessons learnt. 

The CPF will be implemented in the broadest possible partnerships and alignment with the joint efforts of the Government of the Sri Lanka and its development partners.